Professor Tilo Kunath

Group Leader, Chair of Regenerative Neurobiology

Biography

Background

  • PhD at the University of Toronto with Prof Janet Rossant
  • Post-doctoral studies with Prof Austin Smith, Edinburgh
  • Visiting professor at the University of Tsukuba

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Yixi Chen (PhD Student)

Ammar Natalwala (Wellcome Trust funded Research Training Fellow and Specialist Registrar in Neurosurgery)

Craig Leighton (PhD Student)

Sophie Glendinning (PhD Student)

Research summary

Mechanisms of neurodegeneration

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects millions of people world-wide.

Our lab is focussed in two main areas (i) understanding how the protein, alpha-synuclein, causes degeneration of neurons in Parkinson’s, and (ii) producing a cell-based therapy for Parkinson’s. Central to this aim is generation of midbrain dopaminergic neurons from human pluripotent stem cells. We use patient-derived material to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with genetic mutations know to cause Parkinson’s.

 

Aims and areas of interest

The primary aim of the lab is to understand how disease proteins, such as α-synuclein, cause neurodegeneration, and use this understanding to generate novel therapeutics.

 

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